Category Archives: Books

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most prolific writers in the last hundred years and lovers of his writing will be excited to learn that the last of his unpublished works, a new collection, titled I’d Die for You is set to be finally published.

According to a report from The Guardian, the collection was unable to get published during the 1930s but is finding new life in April of 2017.

I’d Die for You will be published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. The publisher explained why the works in the collection were unpublished in the 30’s, explaining some of the stories went unsold because of their controversial subject matter. The style “departed from what editors expected of [the author] in the 1930s.” While some of the other unpublished pieces in the collection were sold to magazines at the time but were never put in print.

According to Scribner, the collection features:

… Fitzgerald writing about controversial topics, depicting young men and women who actually spoke and thought more as young men and women did, without censorship. Rather than permit changes and sanitising by his contemporary editors, Fitzgerald preferred to let his work remain unpublished, even at a time when he was in great need of money and review attention.

The collection includes the title store, “I’d Die for You” which is inspired by Fitzgerald’s own experiences in the mountains of North Carolina in 1936. During that time period, Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda was at a sanatorium nearby. The story, Scribner explains, adds “a Hollywood star and film crew to the Smoky Mountain lakes and pines,” incorporating “the cinematic world in which [Fitzgerald] would soon be living.”

It feels like James Patterson JUST announced his latest book and now he has announced that his latest book, “The Murder of Stephen King” has been cancelled. Reportedly, the book was about a stalker reenacting the horrors from King’s books on the author himself.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Patterson said:

My book is a positive portrayal of a fictional character, and, spoiler alert, the main character is not actually murdered. Nevertheless, I do not want to cause Stephen King or his family any discomfort. Out of respect for them, I have decided not to publish The Murder of Stephen King.

Though Patterson says the novella was meant as a tribute to King, it always seemed in odd taste considering the two aren’t exactly friends. In the past, King has said of Patterson that he’s “a terrible writer but he’s very successful.”

Dark Horse Comics is unleashing Hellboy onto us yet again! Coming next spring, “Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea” will release much to the excitement of fans everywhere.

The new story follows the events of the classic story “The Island” and sees Hellboy setting sail from the wreckage of a deserted island only to cross paths with a ghost ship. Taken captive by the phantom crew that plans to sell him to the circus, Hellboy is dragged along by a captain who will stop at nothing in pursuit of a powerful sea creature.

Gianni has quite an impressive work record. He has worked with iconic writers including George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Michael Chabon. He previously teamed up with Michael Kaluta to work on the classic pulp hero, The Shadow. However, Gianni is best known as the creator of the Monstermen series which appeared as a back-up feature in Hellboy. He also illustrated Prince Valiant, the syndicated newspaper comic strip, for 8 years.

“Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea” is the third Hellboy original graphic novel, following the classics, “Hellboy: House of the Living Dead” by Mignola, Richard Corben and Stewart (2011) and “Hellboy: The Midnight Circus” by Mignola, Duncan Fegredo and Stewart.

The 2016 Max Booker longlist has officially been announced. It features thirteen titles from authors around the world with books originally written in English and published in the U.K. between Oct. 1, 2015 and Sept. 30, 2016. Five of those listed were written by American authors and six of them by British writers. Six of the books were written by women and seven by men.

Ellie Kemper, the comedien who plays Kimmy Shmidt on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” is set to write a memoir!

According to reports, Scribner has signed a deal with Kemper to release a book of personal essays, detailing accounts from her childhood spent in St. Louis and her time in Hollywood, from joining The Office as the airheaded and hilariously original Erin Hannon to landing a film role in Bridesmaids.

In case you haven’t seen the news or been around any super pissed off comic and Marvel fans, this week’s premiere issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers released and boy did it ruffle a ton of feathers.

…Spoilers below clearly…

Captain American, beloved hero and epitome of well America, has been revealed to be a secret agent of Hydra. Blurgh.

Captain America has been one of the more consistent characters in the Marvel roster since the creation of the Marvel universe. His debut was in 1941 with Captain America Comics #1.Since then he has only had a brief hiatus for a decade following the waning interest at the close of World War II. However, we as a nation found him again in 1964 and since then Captain America has held strong. Steve Rogers and Cap have been in dozens of different iterations in the comic world most notably, though, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by Chris Evans.

Here’s the thing. The Captain America name has been synonymous with patriotic and American ideals ever since his inception as a supersoldier battling the evils of Axis Powers in the second World War. Almost every incarnation of his enemies somehow embody whatever anti-American values are bothering our nation at that moment such as Nazism, fascism, communism, anarchism and terrorism. His ongoing foes, Hydra, are an international and domestic terrorist organization bent on world domination through the installation of a fascist New World Order. They also are the complete opposite of SHIELD, the outfit that many Marvel heroes work for including Cap. Hydra has also been known to be Nazi when it first started gaining power during the introduction of the facisist outfit.

That takes us to the new comic release. In one of the closing panels of the comic, the hero (is he still our hero? We don’t rightfully know at this point) utters two words after a long drawn out battle with Baron Zemo: “Hail Hydra.” Two words that spring fear into words of all Marvel characters.

Unfortunately it appears that the patriotic super hero has been revealed to be a Hydra double agent all along. Can I say blurgh again?

Marvel executive Tom Brevoort has confirmed that the character who declared his allegiance to Hydra is, in fact, the authentic Steve Rogers and not an impostor or a shape-shifting Skrull. Brevoort admitted:

We knew it would be like slapping people in the face. […] The idea of Captain America means something very primal and very strong to the people of this nation, and they have a very visceral reaction when you get to something like that. You want people to feel and react to your story. So far, so good.

And boy, people are pissed! Not just because the supersoldier they know to have been fighting Hydra since the 60’s has been bad along supposedly but because hey, did Marvel ever think of the repercussions of the fact that Steve Rogers/Cap was created by a Jewish writer and illustrator and that Hydra is associated and very openly Nazi? It’s a bit fucked up Marvel.

Brevoort has gone on to explain that, from the point of the revelation onward, Captain America’s mission is to further the mission and beliefs of Hydra. Fuck you Brevoort and Marvel.

Tor Books excitedly announced the release of The Stormlight Archive: A Pocket Companion to The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance! The companion was written by#1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson and is ready for release just in time for the second annual Independent Bookstore Day (IBD), which is on April 30th, 2016.

The pocket companion will be a welcomed addition to fans anticipating the publication of the third title in the ten-book ‘The Stormlight Archive’ series, which is tentatively scheduled for release in 2017. The pocket companion is a limited-edition hardcover book of trivia from the ongoing epic fantasy series written by Sanderson. Included content is drawn from the first two books in the series, The Way of Kings andWords of Radiance, which are the only ‘The Stormlight Archive’ books currently available. It compiles interesting details, character profiles, deeper descriptions of the landscape, maps, illustrations, and unanswered questions to ponder until the next book.

The Pocket Companion will be exclusive to IBD participating booksellers for six months. There are 400 stores across the country are expected to participate in this year’s IBD.

According to Publishers Weekly, more than 300 of the 400 stores that participated in last year’s IBD reported an average sales increase of 70%. The Pocket Companion will be exclusive to participating booksellers for six months.

In exciting news for history buffs and literature lovers, a legit collections of plays by William Shakespeare was found on a Scottish island. The folio was confirmed as authentic Shakespeare by an Oxford University professor.

The collection is known as Shakespeare’s First Folio and contains 36 plays. It was first published back in 1623 and features some of Shakespeare’s most well-known works, including Macbeth and The Tempest.

This particular First Folio is interesting because it includes several blank pages that would have likely been used for illustrations. The presumably means the Bute copy was more than likely a working document. Also there are many notes and annotations made by the one of the original owners of the folio.

The folio was hiding out Mount Stuart House on the island of Bute according to the news release by the BBC. The folio was acquired in 1786 by literary agent Issac Reed and in 1807 it was sold to a ‘JW’ for £38 ($53) following Reed’s death. From there the folio was pretty much nonexistent until it popped back up in Sidney Lee’s 1906 census of First Folios. Between JW’s acquisition and the census, it became a possession of the stately house, as the Folio is noted in an 1896 catalogue at the Bute library.

Emma Smith, Oxford University professor of Shakespeare studies, authenticated the collection, which in the past has sold for £2.5 million ($3.5 million) and £2.8 million ($3.9 million).

The discovery of this folio brings the number of known copies of the First Folio up to 234. It is currently on display at Mount Stuart House as part of an exhibition honoring the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

James Gunn’s highly anticipated novel, “Transgalatic” has finally released and science fiction fans everywhere rejoice! The novel is the latest novel in Hugo Award winner and Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee James Gunn’s SF Grandmaster career. It is the sequel to his first major novel in more than a decade, “Transcendental.”

An epic, character-driven, high-concept space opera, TRANSGALACTIC is a real departure for Gunn. It’s a suspenseful novel with unexpected plot twists, set against a deeply spiritual quest—a grander scope and higher concept than anything he’s done before. When Riley and Asha finally reached the planet Terminal and found the Transcendental Machine, a matter transmission device built by an ancient race, they chose to be “translated.” Now in possession of intellectual and physical powers that set them above human limitations, the machine has transported them to two, separate, unknown planets among a possibility of billions. Riley and Asha know that together they can change the galaxy, so they attempt to do the impossible–find each other.

Locus Magazine said,

“This is not a character-driven fiction, but a deliberate revisiting of some of the genre’s most enduring features across a century or more…There’s plenty of life in the old stuff yet.”

Publishers Weekly also praised the novel saying,

“Gunn has written an old-fashioned and deeply philosophical space opera…it should particularly appeal to fans of Arthur C. Clarke who are willing to wait and see what happens in book three.”

JAMES GUNN is the Hugo Award-winning science fiction author of The Joy Makers, The Immortals, and The Listeners, and the coauthor, with Jack Williamson, of the classic epic SF novel Star Bridge. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where he is professor emeritus of English at the University of Kansas. He is the founding director of KU’s Center for the Study of Science Fiction. Gunn was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2015. He is also one of the last living Grand Master Award winners of the Golden Age of science fiction.

ABOUT TOR BOOKS:

Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books. Founded in 1980, Tor annually publishes what is arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher. In 2002, Tor launched Starscape, followed by Tor Teen, imprints dedicated to publishing quality science fiction and fantasy for young readers, including books by critically acclaimed and award winning authors such as Cory Doctorow, Orson Scott Card, David Lubar and Kendare Blake. Between an extensive hardcover and trade-softcover line, an Orb backlist program, and a stronghold in mass-market paperbacks, books from Tor have won every major award in the SF and fantasy fields. In addition, Tor Books has been named Best Publisher 26 years in a row in the Locus Poll, the largest consumer poll in SF.

Now that the HBO series, “Game of Thrones” has caught up and basically surpassed the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire of which it is based, some readers may be less enticed to read the forthcoming novel. (I mean let’s be real, this may not have happened had author George R.R. Martin not taken 5 plus years to write the upcoming novel “The Winds of Winter” which we still have no idea when it is coming out.)

However, GRRM has announced that he will be putting a “twist” in the upcoming final two novels that is a diversion from the series on HBO. He claims this diversion is because certain life-and-death plot changes in the show have already begun.

“It involves a couple of characters, one of whom is dead on the show but not dead in the books,” Martin said, in the course of the 25-minute interview with IGN. “The show can’t do this stuff, because they killed a character that I have not killed.”

It is hard to figure out who exactly may get the axe considering there are at least 15 characters who fit the description but as with most things there is a Reddit thread where this is being widely discussed.

Hopefully, “The Winds of Winter” will release next year as soon as the creative muse inhabits GRRM once more.